To any of you who have a vote in Tuesday’s election, but who live in a state where the race is pretty much a foregone conclusion, please: go vote anyway.
Here’s why.
There’s a saying that when the U.S.A. sneezes, Canada gets a cold.
With election strategies, it tends to be a little different: we get a milder version of whatever malady is afflicting our American friends. Canadian politicos look southward for new tactics and ideas, but there’s an ingrained caution and small-c conservatism that means we adopt milder versions.
But even the most diluted solution of the foul brew being mixed by the GOP campaign, especially in the last week, would be a whole new flavour of awful. The unpardonable sliming of Rashid Khalidi, the red-baiting, the race-baiting, the gay-baiting… it’s been bad enough to make you wonder if the goal isn’t victory, but to ensure Barack Obama inherits a country divided by suspicion, anger and resentment.
With tactics like these, coming up a little short in electoral college isn’t enough.
No, what this campaign needs is crushing, overwhelming defeat, utter humiliation and total repudiation. Not that they’ll get it – enough voters are willing to overlook it or, worse, are swayed by it to guarantee a certain level of support.
But voting against McCain/Palin isn’t just about who will sit in the Oval Office for the next four years. It’s about rejecting and discrediting tactics that are poison to the community. It’s about turning the page on a win-at-all costs mentality that is perfectly prepared to turn large groups of people into scapegoats.
And you get to help make history. That’s gotta feel good, too.
Thanks.
(Oh – and to all my California friends, I hope you’ll vote no to the fear, ugliness, ignorance and, yes, hate behind Proposition 8. Yeah, if you read this blog you probably know all of that already… but just in case…)
